Sr citizens fall prey to ATM card swapping scam

Udupi: In two separate incidents, senior citizens fell victim to an ATM card swapping scam. In a complaint, Jagadish Rao,69, a resident of Kellarkalabettu village, withdrew Rs 10,000 from his Canara Bank savings account at the SBI ATM in Santhekatte at 5.25pm on Oct 6. After withdrawing the money, while he was checking his account statement, a person behind him pretended to help, and managed to take the complainant's ATM card.
Upon returning home, the complainant received messages indicating that a total of Rs 2.3 lakh was withdrawn from his Canara Bank account in phases.When the complainant checked his ATM card, he noticed it was replaced. Upon reviewing his account, he found that only Rs 32,192 remained. It appeared that an unknown individual secretly replaced his ATM card and fraudulently withdrew a total of Rs 2.4 lakh from his account. A case was registered at Udupi Town police station.
In another case, Chennappa,73, a resident of Kodi village, alleged that when he went to withdraw money from the Karnataka Bank ATM in Sasthana, Pandeshwar, at 10.30 AM on Oct 4, an unknown person entered the ATM. Under the pretext of helping him, the person discreetly swapped his ATM card with his own card, without the complainant's knowledge, it is alleged. Later, on Oct 7, when the complainant attempted to withdraw money, he discovered that his account showed no balance.
Upon enquiring at the bank, he found out that between Oct 4 and 6, a total Rs 99,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from his account by an unknown individual in Saligrama, Shivamogga, Kargal, and Gokarna. Based on this complaint, a case was registered at the Kota police station.